NAKAJIMA G5N SHINZAN & NAKAJIMA G8N RENZAN FAMOUS AIRPLANES OF WORLD FAOW 90 Bk

Description: Offered by Over The Blue Horizon is a rare, long out-of-print Famous Airplanes of the World (FAOW) on two of Japan’s heavy four engine, land-based bombers of WWII: “NAKAJIMA G5N SHINZAN and NAKAJIMA G8N RENZAN”, FAOW Blue Cover Number 90, October 1977. NAKAJIMA’s G5N SHINZAN (Mountain Recess), Allied Codename: LIZ, was Japan’s first attempt to design and build a land-based four-engined bomber – it was both the first land-based four-engined aircraft ever designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (the Army largely ignored four-engined bombers until much later in the Pacific War period) and the first Japanese aircraft ever to utilize a retractable nosewheel-type (i.e., tricycle) undercarriage. Built in response to a 1938 requirement for a land-based bomber with a range of 4,000 miles, NAKAJIMA recognized the need for a four-engined configuration, and because they lacked sufficient experience in designing and building such a large aircraft, it was decided to use a recently purchased DOUGLAS DC-4E as a prototype. Using the DC-4’s wing, undercarriage, and powerplant installation as starting points, NAKAJIMA added a new fuselage with a glazed nose, a rather pregnant-looking bomb-bay that seemed to drag the ground, a “stepped" ventral gun position facing aft just behind the bomb-bay, and new tail surfaces with twin fins and rudders. The final effect was to create an aircraft roughly similar to the initial configuration of the CONSOLIDATED B-24 LIBERATOR. Powered by four 1,870-hp Nakajima Mamoru 11 fourteen-cylinder engines driving four-bladed propellers, the first Experimental 13-Shi Attack Bomber G5N1 SHINZAN (as the plane was officially designated) first flew in April 1941. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the SHINZAN was overly complex, too heavy, and the engines proved unreliable. Understandably, the SHINZAN was slow, lacked range, and had poor high altitude performance, and as a result, only four SHINZANs were eventually built and were relegated to serve as freight transports. NAKAJIMA’s second shot at building a four engined bomber was more technically successful but even less operationally relevant – the G8N1 RENZAN (Mountain Range), Allied Codename: RITA. The RENZAN’s design featured a mid-mounted wing of small area and high aspect ratio, tricycle landing gear and a large single-fin rudder. Power came from four 2,000hp Nakajima NK9K-L Homare 24 radial engines with Hitachi 92 turbosuperchargers driving four-bladed propellers. The engines were cooled by counter-rotating fans positioned just inside the engine cowlings, and defensive armament included power-operated nose, dorsal, ventral and tail turrets along with two free-swiveling machine guns at the beam positions. The initial prototype was completed in October 1944 and delivered for testing in January 1945. Three further examples were completed by June 1945, with the third prototype being destroyed on the ground by US carrier aircraft. Other than minor problems with the turbosuperchargers, the RENZAN performed satisfactorily and the Navy hoped to have a total of 16 prototypes and 48 production-version G8N1s assembled by September 1945. But the worsening war situation and a critical shortage of light aluminum alloys led to the project's cancellation in June 1945. The FAOW series has been in print for decades, and the format has evolved over the years. The current Series is characterized by a Black Cover, but earlier formats included the Blue Cover and the Chart (or Graph) Covers. This vintage FAOW is from the earlier Blue Cover Series, but like all FAOWs, offers exceptional photographs (many rarely seen in the West), line drawings, illustrations of details such as cockpit interiors, and profiles, some in color. Text was in Japanese but the combination of great photographs and affordable price made FAOWs exceptionally popular and are still very well-regarded by aviation historians and advanced modelers. This 68-page, 7.25 x 10.25 inch softcover is no exception and provides exceptional coverage of these fascinating aircraft. Condition of this rare, out-of-print FAOW is FAIR+ bordering on GOOD -- it shows moderate shelf wear to the covers but the pages are clean and bright with no tears, creases, marks, dogears, etc. Note that Over the Blue Horizon ships from the USA with FREE United States Postal Service (USPS) FIRST CLASS shipping to USA buyers! eBay charges sales tax for certain states; Over the Blue Horizon charges Hawaii residents state general excise tax. Your purchase will be carefully wrapped to ensure that it arrives in the same condition as described in the eBay listing, and it should arrive within 4-6 days. If you are not happy with your purchase for whatever reason, we will work something out -- your satisfaction is GUARANTEED. Regardless of where you are in the world, buy with confidence from a well-established eBay merchant with a sterling reputation and an exceptionally high customer satisfaction rate – check out our feedback!

Price: 34.99 USD

Location: Kailua, Hawaii

End Time: 2024-11-30T04:55:44.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD